Behind the door: Keeping business leaders focused on how they lead.

The importance of how leaders lead (i.e., the individual behavioral dimension of leadership), is emphasized as a necessary component of comprehensive leadership development initiatives. Key practice factors and meta themes of an insight-oriented development model designed to influence executive behavior are presented, as well as a possible typology for recognizing certain behavioral states among business leaders. Several vignettes of executive cases in poetic form are also provided to illustrate these behavioral states, to emphasize the psychological effects on others of both effective and dysfunctional leader behavior, and more broadly to suggest the potential value of metaphorical thought as a consulting tool for influencing the effective behavior of senior business executives. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Micro Ceramic Cell Analyzer (MCCA) - Preliminary results

This paper describes the preliminary results of a detection module for a Micro Ceramic Cell Analyzer (MCCA) development and fabrication process. The detector with integrated light source (electroluminescence diode) and photodetector (light-to-voltage converter) is made using Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics (LTCC) technology. The presented device is assigned for use in fluorescence activated cell detection. Its performance is examined experimentally for two test solutions, which consist of Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cervisiae cells. Investigated biological material is marked using the DAPI (4′, 6-diamidino-2′-phenylindole, dihydrochloride) fluorescent stain. After exposure to a 370 nm excitation light, the cells bonded with DAPI fluorescent blue (460 nm). Using the photodetector, fluorescence intensity was found to be proportional to the number of the cells in the test solutions.     

Intelligent Mobile System for Improving Spatial Design Support and Security Inside Buildings

This paper concerns the an intelligent mobile application for spatial design support and security domain. Mobility has two aspects in our research: The first one is the usage of mobile robots for 3D mapping of urban areas and for performing some specific tasks. The second mobility aspect is related with a novel Software as a Service system that allows access to robotic functionalities and data over the Ethernet, thus we demonstrate the use of the novel NVIDIA GRID technology allowing to virtualize the graphic processing unit. We introduce Complex Shape Histogram, a core component of our artificial intelligence engine, used for classifying 3D point clouds with a Support Vector Machine. We use Complex Shape Histograms also for loop closing detection in the simultaneous localization and mapping algorithm. Our intelligent mobile system is built on top of the Qualitative Spatio-Temporal Representation and Reasoning framework. This framework defines an ontology and a semantic model, which are used for building the intelligent mobile user interfaces. We show experiments demonstrating advantages of our approach. In addition, we test our prototypes in the field after the end-user case studies demonstrating a relevant contribution for future intelligent mobile systems that merge mobile robots with novel data centers.     

Sentiment Analysis as a Source of Gaining Competitive Advantage on the Electricity Markets

The electricity retail markets are evolving toward more competitive and customer-oriented. The deployment of smart meters and a wealth of new technologies create customers' eagerness for taking control of their electricity consumption. By being better-informed about the energy usage, people are encouraged to switch deals among existing suppliers or move to a new energy provider. Moreover, as customers are more socially interconnected, the Internet portals and social media become a place for discussion, comparison, and evaluation of the available offers. Unfortunately, in case of the energy sector there is a lack of understanding that such information, when taken into account and properly analyzed, can be a completely new and a powerful source of competitive advantage.In the paper, we introduce a solution that the use of quasi real-time automated sentiment analysis on the energy suppliers and the relevant aspects of their offers may enable energy companies to adapt quickly to changing circumstances, prevent potential customer churn, and harness new business opportunities.     

A growable packet (ATM) switch architecture: design principles andapplication

The problem of designing a large high-performance, broadband packet of ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) switch is discussed. Ways to construct arbitrarily large switches out of modest-size packet switches without sacrificing overall delay/throughput performance are presented. A growable switch architecture is presented that is based on three key principles: a generalized knockout principle exploits the statistical behaviour of packet arrivals and thereby reduces the interconnect complexity, output queuing yields the best possible delay/throughput performance, and distributed intelligence in routing packets through the interconnect fabric eliminates internal path conflicts. Features of the architecture include the guarantee of first-in-first-out packet sequence, broadcast and multicast capabilities, and compatibility with variable-length packets, which avoids the need for packet-size standardization. As a broadband ISDN example, a 2048×2048 configuration with building blocks of 42×16 packet switch modules and 128×128 interconnect modules, both of which fall within existing hardware capabilities, is presented     

SNMP-based acquisition system for DiffServ parameters

Modern communication networks cannot get along without quality of service (QoS) assurance. QoS-support mechanisms offer preferential treatment for specific traffic classes that is required especially by real-time network applications. Unfortunately current QoS technologies have certain disadvantages and limitations and therefore they are not always able to guarantee the required QoS level. This paper introduces a quality of service support system that improves the most often used quality of service support technology called Differentiated Services (DiffServ). The system proposed utilizes the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) for the acquisition of configuration information from the edge router of the DiffServ domain. This information is subsequently used to control the allocation of network resources within the QoS assurance process. In order to evaluate this system we used the OPNET Modeler simulation environment where we built a simulation scenario able to interact with real network components. For this purpose we implemented the SNMP protocol into the OPNET Modeler and used it for acquisition of management information, stored in the Management Information Base (MIB) of the network node. The paper describes in details the improved QoS-support mechanism and the simulation model able to cosimulate the behavior of both real and virtual network elements.     

The Rule of Thirds: Controlling Junction Chirality and Polarity in 3D DNA Tiles

The successful self-assembly of tensegrity triangle DNA crystals heralded the ability to programmably construct macroscopic crystalline nanomaterials from rationally-designed, nanoscale components. This 3D DNA tile owes its “tensegrity” nature to its three rotationally stacked double helices locked together by the tensile winding of a center strand segmented into 7 base pair (bp) inter-junction regions, corresponding to two-thirds of a helical turn of DNA. All reported tensegrity triangles to date have employed $\left(Z+2/3\right)$ turn inter-junction segments, yielding right-handed, antiparallel, “J1” junctions. Here a minimal DNA triangle motif consisting of 3-bp inter-junction segments, or one-third of a helical turn is reported. It is found that the minimal motif exhibits a reversed morphology with a left-handed tertiary structure mediated by a locally-parallel Holliday junction—the “L1” junction. This parallel junction yields a predicted helical groove matching pattern that breaks the pseudosymmetry between tile faces, and the junction morphology further suggests a folding mechanism. A Rule of Thirds by which supramolecular chirality can be programmed through inter-junction DNA segment length is identified. These results underscore the role that global topological forces play in determining local DNA architecture and ultimately point to an under-explored class of self-assembling, chiral nanomaterials for topological processes in biological systems.